1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications systems/methods. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing local interactive voice response services.
2. Related Art
Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are known in the art. Such systems provide telephone callers with the ability to obtain information, and/or conduct activities (e.g., ordering a product/service, refilling a prescription, etc.) using synthesized and/or pre-recorded speech generated by a computer system. Such a computer system is often connected to the public telephone switched network (PTSN) to receive telephone calls from callers, and includes associated telephony hardware for processing telephone calls. Also, such systems can handle telephone calls which are generated using Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), e.g., telephone calls placed to the IVR system over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
One drawback of existing IVR systems is that telephone calls are often handled by a central IVR server having PTSN and VoIP connections directly thereto. Such an arrangement represents an expense for a business, in that the business must purchase telephone equipment to handle inbound calls. In the case of a large business which handles multiple telephone calls, this can represent a significant expense. Moreover, voice traffic is bandwidth intensive, thereby requiring a business operating a central IVR system to provide sufficient network capacity to handle the traffic. Still further, many central IVR systems do not allow for the provisioning of IVR services locally, using a local computer that receives telephone calls and generates IVR prompts locally under the command of a central server, such that reduced bandwith is required between the central server and the local computer.